Horse and rider see America close up

Thursday

Nov 21, 2013 at 10:18 PMNov 21, 2013 at 10:27 PM

FITCHBURG — Taking a break on Kimball Street on Thursday, Pepper enjoyed some oats and then lay down for a much deserved rest. The horse and rider Alex McNeil are on a journey, eight months so far, from the Pacific coast in Oregon to Hampton Beach, N.H.

By George Barnes, TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

FITCHBURG — Taking a break on Kimball Street, Pepper enjoyed some oats and then lay down for a much deserved rest.

"Don't roll! Don't roll," her owner Alex McNeil called out, worried the horse would roll on its side and crush his possessions stored in her saddle bags.

Mr. McNeil, 37, formerly of New Hampshire and lately of Montana, and Pepper, a 5½-year-old horse he has owned for a year, took a little time off in Fitchburg from what has been an eight-month journey from the Pacific coast in Oregon to Fitchburg with a final destination of Hampton Beach, N.H. They hope to arrive there Saturday.

Lately they have been following Route 2A, but the trip has taken them across deserts and prairies, over mountains, through cornfields. Often Mr. McNeil was on cart paths or off road, relying on a Garmin GPS he had with him and paper and Google maps.

Mr. McNeil's reason for the trip is simple. He is a carpenter by trade but he has an adventurous spirit. He also worked as an outdoors guide for river and hiking expeditions, but has just been a traveler the past eight months.

"Life's ephemeral," he said. "I'm always up for a challenge. I always like to try something different."

The idea that life is short and his willingness to seek challenges set him off on his adventure with Pepper. It is also not he first adventure in his life. Born in Pennsylvania, he grew up in Warner, N.H. before traveling out west. He said he has crossed the country many times, mostly in cars, but also using five less traditional modes of transportation. Along with the current horse trip, he has also biked, ridden a moped, a motorcycle and an airplane across the United State or Canada.

"Ironically, the moped was the cheapest and the fastest," he said.

The moped cost him just $52 in gasoline. It putted along at 20-miles per hour, but was still faster than flying a Cessna 150. It took 27 days versus the airplane, which was 34 days. The reason the airplane was slower was weather. On the moped he kept putting along regardless of rain, snow, sleet or hail. Flying the airplane, he was grounded for a long time in Ohio because of the weather.

The idea to ride the horse across the country came to him two years ago while riding a bicycle more than 4,000 miles across Canada. He saw a horse in a field along the way and decided it would be his next transportation. It was a bit of a learning curve.

"This is my first horse," he admitted as he spread out a bag of feed for Pepper.

In preparing for the ride, he learned about horses and the horse learned about him. When he bought Pepper, she was what he calls green broken. She could be ridden but he had to teach her the commands needed to bring her up to the level where she would follow his commands, including not to roll.

As Mr. McNeil and Pepper made their way through Fitchburg, they approached the 3,800-mile mark for the trip, but that does not count the 1,000 miles they traveled by truck from Montana to Brookings, Ore., to start the trip in March.

The journey has been interesting, but not always easy.

In Brookings, Mr. McNeil said, he had to deal with cold weather and snow. That was the coldest weather they encountered, but they faced other challenges along the way.

"I've really enjoyed this, but it hasn't always been easy," he said. "There have been many weeks in a row with few rations and little water."

In the deserts of eastern Oregon, they struggled to find enough water, but it was worse in Montana.

"In Montana there was 550 miles of sagebrush," he said. "That's the gnarly bit."

There were also clouds of buffalo gnats in Idaho so thick he had to spray bug spray on Pepper and get into his tent as quickly as possible.

But there was a lot to like about the trip as well, he said. He said the upper plains in Nebraska were beautiful and he met many nice and interesting people as he traveled through Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming Montana, Iowa, Nebraska, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and, of course, Massachusetts.

"People have been really good all along the way," he said. "What you see on television is just cheap drama. What I've seen is friendliness and giving all along the way."

As he traveled through communities large and small, he said farmers fed his horse and helped him replenish the grain he needed for the next few days. Along the way the horse would free graze when it could, but he also carried about 20 pounds of grain per day. They slept in fields and forest mostly, but occasionally found shelter for the night at someone's home.

Mr. McNeil said regardless of the host's political or religious beliefs, he was treated with kindness. He said he spent time with Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses and many others who were much more religious than he is. He also met atheists and many people who shared much different political beliefs.

"You have to be open to everyone," he said. "You have to be okay with diversity."

During part of the trip, he switched gears and was loaned a horse cart to which he hitched Pepper. It was easier on the horse and helped move the trip along faster. Without the cart, he said, he generally made 20 to 25 miles per day. With the cart it was more like 30 to 35 miles per day. He would also plan one day of rest for every four days in the saddle, but with a cart he would ride six days and rest one.

The rules of how much to travel have not been strict. He said it depended mostly on weather and how Pepper was feeling.

A blog on Mr. McNeil's trip can be found on Facebook at On the Hoof, Sea to Sea. He said he has kept a journal and taken many photographs along the way. He hopes eventually to write a book about the adventure, which he said will be his last of its kind in the United States. He hopes his next challenge will be to travel through Europe.

Contact George Barnes at george.barnes@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter @georgebarnesTG